Toronto, Canada (BBN)-Matthew Kellway hopes sometime this fall to stand in the House of Commons and introduce a motion that will help improve the fortunes of Bangladesh garment workers.
Kellway, an NDP MP representing Toronto’s Beaches-East York riding, has visited the site of last year’s Rana Plaza disaster and has been a critic of the federal government’s failure to track the origin of the clothing it purchases for civil servants, reports The Star.
Kellway wants to pressure Public Works minister Diane Finley to introduce an ethical sourcing policy, as provinces such as Ontario and Manitoba have done.
Kellway has tabled two motions in the House of Commons.
The first would see Canada endorse the Accord on Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh.
The second would call for Canada to introduce greater transparency in its clothing purchasing.
An MP can put up one motion or private members bill to put forward for debate but can table as many as he or she wishes.
Kellway’s "turn" for debate is No. 155, which he says is supposed to come up late in the fall session or early in the spring.
When his turn comes, Kellway will have to choose which of his motions to put up.
Parliament commits five hours of debate every week to private members' bills and motions.
MPs deal with about two motions per week of sitting.
Why table a motion instead of a private members’ bill?
“Motions serve more of an expression of the will of the House that the government then should act upon. But, unlike a private member’s bill which is, say, legislatively prescriptive, a motion tends to leave implementation details open,” Kellway says.
Also motions take months for resolution. Because they go for second readings, and to the senate for approval, bills take years.
Very few private member’s bills actually are passed into law.
“I don't want to see Rana Plaza get lost,” Kellway said. “It should be an event in our lifetime like the Triangle factory factory that wakes people up to change the way we are doing things.
Looking at the circumstances of Bangladesh, there is an opportunity to stop the garment industry picking up stakes and moving on to next low-cost destination and repeating what they have done for the past 100 years. I want to catch this moment.”
Finley has repeatedly refused to be interviewed about the government’s lack of an ethical clothing policy.
“The motion also serves to call the Conservatives out ,” Kellway said. “They've made the claim through their local compliance policy that they're both aware of the problems workers in this industry face. We've exposed that policy as a sham. This motion gives them an opportunity to recover. The Minister has, now, in her hands a way forward and no excuse for refusing to act.”
BBN/AS-12June14-1:45pm (BST)